Wake Up to New Ways of Being

Times change. And with those changes the way people associate and work together change. As Christians we need to recognise these changes, and be led by the Spirit to adapt with them rather than find ourselves stuck. Being stuck implies an innate resistance to movement - yet the Spirit is moving all the time.

In the ministry of Jesus we don't see him creating a whole lot of fixed structure. He related to his heavenly Father, gathered followers around him, and sent them with the promise of the Spirit. That was about all the structure he needed. Yet he did teach Kingdom and also work Kingdom within structures of the day - in the local synagogues, for example.

Was Jesus able to operate structure-light because he was smarter than us? Possibly!

But it was probably because Jesus was incarnational - God come in the flesh. He was therefore able to inhabit the structures of the day, teaching and working Kingdom within them. Since the Kingdom cannot be contained by any human structure Jesus was also perfectly able to teach and work Kingdom outside in the street as well!

So as we follow Jesus let us learn to be incarnational and inhabit structures that are relevant to our day. If those structures subside and new ones come to the fore, then let us not be afraid to let go of the old - led by the Spirit to teach and work Kingdom in the new ones. And let us not think Jesus is bound by either old or new structures - we can teach and work Kingdom outside in the street too ...